February 24, 2006

TURKEY GIVES UP ON JOINING THE E.U.: “Ankara is demanding an official apology from Copenhagen for the twelve Muhammad drawings published last September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Unless the Danish government of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distances itself from the cartoons (see them here, halfway down the page) and apologizes to Muslims worldwide, no bridge-building with the Islamic world is possible, said Namik Tan, the official spokesman of the Turkish Foreign Ministry.”

This is a blow to the Turkish secular state, in more ways than one. It’s also ammunition, unfortunately, for those who argue that Islam is simply incompatible with the modern world. Of course, given the European tendency toward appeasement, maybe Turkey figures that this is the best way to be voted in.

UPDATE: A bit of happy news: The report above is apparently in error, though the details are unclear.

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